Taking inspiration from Vanity Fair's recurrent interviews with Billie Eilish, we're giving our authors the same questions once a year to see how their answers change.
Samantha was the second author to join SmashBear Publishing and I can never thank her enough for taking the huge leap of faith and joining my then, very new, indie press! Her debut novel, The Wing Thief, quickly became one of our best sellers and one of the favourite books of the staff!
How many books have you written?
I’m proud to say that I have written The Wing Thief, a short story for SmashBear’s upcoming Anthology called The Curse and the sequel to The Wing Thief (yet to be named) which we’ll be starting the editing process on very soon!
What genres do you write in?
I tend to write in the fantasy genre – The Wing Thief and its sequel being YA fantasy and The Curse is urban fantasy. I just love the freedom that writing fantasy can offer you – if I want to create a completely new creature and give it several different magical powers then I can. There are absolutely no rules, and I can totally let my creative juices flow. I find something so exciting in that kind of creative freedom.
Where does your inspiration come from?
I’ve always been a huge fan of anything fantasy, whether through reading or watching movies etc. My favourite reads include The Hunger Games, Harry Potter and The Chronicles of Narnia and my favourite TV show is Once Upon A Time. I love the feeling of escapism they all offer, and definitely feel inspired to create my own worlds that people can escape to when they need a bit of time out from the real world.
How many followers do you have?
At the moment I have 5,173 followers on Twitter, 1,806 followers on TikTok and 526 followers on Instagram. I still can’t believe how incredibly supportive the reading and writing communities are on social media!
What’s your advice to future writer’s?
My advice would be to write a book that you would like to read. If you enjoy your story then that excitement and passion will shine through in your writing. Also, if you ever find yourself struggling to find inspiration then take a break and read! Reading and writing go hand in hand and, personally I believe, that the more you read, the better you will write.
If you were to be a creature from one of your books, what would it be and why?
Ooh, that is such a good question! I spent a while thinking over my answer and, even though it seems like the most obvious response, I’ve decided I would choose to be a fairy. Despite them having quite a few problems that aren’t exactly ideal, they do have a very strong sense of family which is very important to me, and they have the added bonus of being able to fly which would be pretty incredible!
What are you reading at the moment?
I’ve been participating in the 52 Week Book Challenge this year to try and broaden my reading genres so I’m currently reading The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman, an indie book called The Scars of Gaia by my good friend R. P. Lauer and listening to an audiobook called I Will Always Write Back by Caitlin Alifirenka and Martin Ganda.
Has publishing changed your writing process?
I would say that publishing has definitely made me more confident in my writing abilities, there’s nothing quite like having the backing of other people who believe in your book to make you feel stronger. With regards to my actual writing process, I’m not sure that has changed much though. I’ve never been much of a planner when it comes to my writing. I’m more the type of writer who knows how I would like a book to start and then lets the rest come as I write. I truly find it more fun this way as sometimes my characters end up in places that I never originally imagined they would go. This style of writing has stayed the same both before and after being published which I’m very pleased about.
You can check out Samantha's social media here